Canadian Safety Reporter

3 No smoking in personal vehicles on company property reasonable: Arbitrator Company introduced new policy prohibiting smoking everywhere on its premises with goal of improving employee health and wellness BY JEFFREY R. SMITH AN ARBITRATOR has upheld an Alberta company's policy prohibiting smoking anywhere on its property, including inside employees' vehicles in the com- pany parking lot. Tracker Logistics operated a warehouse in Leduc, Alta., providing logistic services and supply chain management. For some time, Tracker maintained a smoking policy at the warehouse that allowed smoking outside in designated smoking areas, no closer than five metres to any entrance. Smoking was only al- lowed during scheduled breaks — no extra "smoke breaks" were permitted — and a failure to comply could result in "disci- pline up to and including termi- nation of employment." The smoking policy was the result of Tracker's parent com- pany, Excel, deciding to unify its policies across North America. Excel had a Canadian health and wellness strategy that aimed "to create an environment that encourages personal responsi- bility and neutral respect and improves the health, safety and productivity of our workforce." Part of this strategy involved in- creasing engagement in health management programs to achieve a healthier, more pro- ductive workforce. In 2014, Excel and Tracker developed a new smoking poli- cy to come into effect on Jan. 1, 2015. The new policy prohib- ited tobacco use "in any location designated as a Tracker work- place." This included all inside and outside areas of the facility, green spaces, sidewalks, park- ing lots and garages on company property — even those owned by Tracker but leased by a third party. Personal vehicles on com- pany property were not exempt from the policy and the policy indicated, as before, that viola- tions would result in disciplinary action. The impetus for the new pol- icy was the goal to eliminate to- bacco use by employees and as- sociates in order to improve the health of everyone at Tracker. The company believed it had a responsibility to "improve and protect our associates' health" and was committed to its well- ness strategy. In addition, many of its customers had already gone to completely smoke-free workplaces and it didn't want customers having to encounter smoke at its own location or have employees looking for a place to smoke at customers' locations. The parent company, Excel, was also analyzing health care costs at its U.S. locations, in which it discovered tobacco users costs more per year than employees who didn't use it. In addition, tobacco users had a substantially higher risk than non-tobacco users for having certain medi- cal conditions linked to tobacco usage. While Canada had a dif- ferent healthcare environment with less costs shouldered by the employer, the company had a Conference Board of Canada study that found significant ad- ditional costs for employers who employed smokers from reduced productivity due to smoke breaks and increased ab- senteeism. Tracker introduced the new policy in labour-management meetings in March 2014, after Excel had implemented it in non-unionized corporate offices in 2012. The plan was to give em- ployees at least six months no- tice of the changes with ongoing promotion of its "Quit for Life" smoking resource, which the company offered free of charge to employees and their spouses and adult dependants who want- ed to quit smoking. The compa- ny issued talking points to man- agers to help them get the word out on the new policy and make it clear no smoking was allowed anywhere on company property, including inside vehicles. Tracker continued the roll- out of the policy with meet- ings throughout 2014, includ- ing monthly meetings with the union and town hall meetings with employees where the "Quit for Life" program was promoted. The company provided the union with a copy of the policy in June 2014 and re-sent a final, formal copy on Oct. 8. Over the last few months of 2014, Tracker continued the rollout with no- tices, signs and newsletters. No-smoking policy went too far: Union On Oct. 29, 2014, the union filed a grievance, arguing that the new policy was "unreasonable, unclear, and breaches the pri- vacy rights of the membership of (the union) at Tracker Logistics." The union also said the policy went much farther than existing provincial legislation regulat- ing smoking and including the inside of personal vehicles on company premises raised ques- tions about possible searches of those vehicles. Personal vehicles were beyond the scope of the Alberta Tobacco Reduction Act and therefore it was unreason- able for Tracker to have such limitations in its own policy, said the union. Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2016 News | July 2016 | CSR Credit: Shutterstock/karen roach Policy > pg. 7

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